Decision no. ... in the matter of fixing reasonable fees for attorneys or agents under the authority of Section 9 of the...

UNiV. OF FL LIB.
DOCUMENTS DEPTH

Si t! e .... .

U.S. DEPOSITORY





THE AMERICAN COMMISSIONER

MIXED CLAIMS COMMISSION

UNITED STATES AND GERMANY


DECISION NO. 4
IN THE MATTER OF
FIXING REASONABLE FEES FOR ATTORNEYS OR
AGENTS UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF SECTION 9 OF
THE SETTLEMENT OF WAR CLAIMS ACT OF 1928"


DOCKET NO. 7297


Rudolph Reinhart, Executor, Estate of Recha Reinhart, Claimant

Triuesdale, Nicoll, Falkh, and Gale, Attorneys


CHANDLER P. ANDERSON,
American. Con~n iussioner































MIXED CLAIMS COMMISSION, UNITED STATES AND GERMANY

Established in pursuance of the Agreement between the
United States and Germany of August 10, 1922


CHANDLER P. ANDERSON
American Comznissioner

(U)












THE AMERICAN COMMISSIONER

MIXED CLAIMS COMMISSION

UNITED STATES AND GERMANY


DECISION NO. 4

IN THE MATTER OF
FIXING REASONABLE FEES FOR ATTORNEYS OR
AGENTS UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF SECTION 9 OF
THE SETTLEMENT OF WAR CLAIMS ACT OF 1928 "


DOCKET NO. 7297


Rudolph Reinhart, Executor, Estate of Recha Relnhart, Claimant

Truesdale, Nicoll, Falk, and Gale, Attorneys


The above named claimant has duly filed with the American Com-
missioner a written request that he fix a reasonable fee to be paid by
him to his attorneys, Truesdale, Nicoll, Falk & Gale, of New York
City, New York, as compensation for whatever services have been
rendered by them on behalf of and with the authority of the said
claimant, such services being of the character described in the pro-
visions of Section 9 of the Settlement of War Claims Act of 1928 ".
The claimant requests that the attorneys' fee in this case be fixed
because the award is made to him in his representative capacity, and,
although the fee, which he agreed to pay the attorneys at the time
they were retained by him, seems reasonable and satisfactory to him
and would not be questioned if the matter merely concerned him
individually, he feels under an obligation, in the interest, of the
beneficiaries, to take advantage of the provisions of the Act of Con-
gress above mentioned in order that the question of the reasonable-
18600-28 (47)







ness of the attorneys' fee may be determined by the American
Commissioner.
The attorneys have been duly notified of the filing by the claimant
of his request that a reasonable fee be fixed, and the attorneys and the
claimant have filed with the American Commissioner several affidavits
giving the information which they desire to have considered by the
Commission in fixing a reasonable fee in this case, copies of which
affidavits have been exchanged between the claimant and the
attorneys.
In this case an award was rendered by this Commission on Novem-
ber 15, 1926, on behalf of the claimant for $25,499.70, with interest
thereon at the rate of five per cent per annum from August 9, 1917, to
the date of payment.
The claimant states in his affidavit that in his capacity as executor
of the estate of his mother, Recha Reinhart, lie retained these attor-
neys to act. for him in the presentation and collection of this claim,
and he agreed with them at the outset that their compensation should
bu equivalent to twenty per cent of any award that might be made,
and that the payment of this compensation should be contingent upon
the payment of an award. He states further that. at the time he re-
tained the attorneys in this matter the estate of which he is the exec-
utor had no assets nor any prospect of obtaining any ", except by
prosecution of this claim. He adds that at that. time the attorneys
"offered and preferred to undertake the work on the basis of an
assured compensation regardless of result", but that having no
funds in the estate, I was unable, as executor, to agree to pay coun-
sel the reasonable value of their services, regardless of the outcome
of their efforts ", and, accordingly, as a matter of accommodation to
me, because of past friendly relationship, they agreed to take the
case!" on the contingent basis above stated. Mr. Gale states in his
affidavit that the attorneys were reluctant to take the case on this
basis, but finally did so, because of past satisfactory professional and
friendly relations with Mr. Reinhart", and he adds, l" We considered
that compensation extremely moderate and would not have taken the
case for any less."
The character and extent of the services rendered by the attorneys
in this case are set out in the affidavits submitted, from which it ap-
pears that in addition to preparing and filing the original petition"








with the Department of State, it later became necessary to redraw this
petition so as to meet certain technical points of proof required, by
reason of decisions made by the Commission in similar cases, and
later on a third petition was prepared and filed to meet a doubt which
had arisen on the part of the American Agency as to whether the
claim should be treated as a debt claim or as an estate claim.
It further appears that in the preparation of these petitions and
the evidence to support the claim, it was necessary to examine and re-
view voluminous records and documents relating to the proceedings
of the Administrator appointed by the German court, including the
official proceeding connected with his appointment, his correspond-
ence connected with reducing the estate to his possession and with
the administration of the estate, and all his accounts concerning the
estate. The claimant states in his affidavit that his recollection is
that there were at. least a thousand different documents, and perhaps
many more. All of these, which were written in German, had to be
reviewed in order to ascertain precisely what had occurred and in
order, in the first instance, to discover what my rights as claimant
were, and, secondly, to be able to produce proper evidence of those
rights. After my attorneys had gone through this mass of material,
during which they had frequent conferences with me, further infor-
mation and supporting evidence on certain points had to be obtained
from Germany. In addition there was the task of proving the Amer-
ican citizenship of the beneficiaries of the estate, which was rendered
somewhat difficult by the fact that some of them were born in San
Francisco, California, the vital statistics of which city had been de-
stroyed in the earthquake." The work of translating the German
documents was also performed by the attorneys.
Mr. Gale confirms in his affidavit the claimant's statement as to the
services rendered by the attorneys.
It also appears that in addition to the services above indicated the
attorneys from time to time had numerous conferences in Washing-
ton with the American Agency.
Now, therefore' considering that the payment of the fee agreed
upon was contingent upon securing and collecting an award, and con-
sidering the character and extent and value of the services rendered
by the attorneys, and the concurrence of both the claimant and the
attorneys in the reasonableness of the fee thus agreed upon, and in







view of the considerations stated in the general Jurisdictional and
Administrative Decision rendered by the American Commissioner
under date of September 28, 1928, and after careful examination and
full consideration of the information furnished in this proceeding by
the attorneys and the claimant, and of the information pertinent to
the questions involved in this case on file in the records of this Com-
mission, and after due deliberation thereon,
The American Commissioner decides and fixes as the reasonable
fee to be paid by the claimant. Rudolph Reinhart, executor of the
estate of Recha Reinhart, to his said attorneys, Truesdale, Nicoll,
Falk and Gale, in this case, the fee agreed upon and fixed by them,
namely, twenty per cent of the amount received by the claimant from
the Treasury Department. in payment of his award, said fee to be paid
by the claimant and received by the attorneys as full compensation
for all services rendered in the prosecution and collection of this
claim, as defined in Section 9 of the Settlement of War Claims Act
of 1928."
Done at Washington, D. C., this 26th day of October, 1928.
CHANDLER P. ANDERSON,
A me ican Corn missioner,
Mixed Claims Commission,
United States and Germany.

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